GR10 Day38

Today was to be a longer walk, but with a lot less climbing.  The path initially led down from the refuge (after another poor breakfast) and then started to climb up a broad valley.  We caught up on a group of about eight people and managed to pass them on the flat.  This seemed to upset the leader of the group, who increased his pace to follow us.  We then reached the first climb, so it was non-stop to the top to avoid them catching us.  We made it to the top and kept going, and the big group stopped, so we quickly got away from them as we started the descent.  This took us into a broad valley, past a lake, and then we started climbing again.  There were a few places where the granite boulders were too big to step across and some scrambling was required.  We got over the top, luckily the strong wind was on our backs, and felt the odd spot of rain. We descended into a very broad valley, and the rain turned from a few spots to heavy.  We put our jackets on, stood behind a large boulder, and had a cookie each.  The rain wasn’t going to stop, so we set off again.  The rain decreased and we then had a shower every so often as we continued down the valley.  The scenery was very Scottish; a very broad valley, a few trees, and granite boulders.  It was at least an hour of walking before we finally reached the next valley, with a large hydro-electric lake in it.  I thought there would be a lovely flat road around the lake.  Unfortunately not, as we spent an hour working our way along the lake on a path through boulders and tree roots.  We finally reached the dam and marched across it as the rain returned.  The auberge was at the other side, and we were soon in our room and drying out.